Last season was full of surprises and great shows as well as few failures.

This new season that begins in October doesn't bring much novelty in regards to new shows, but there are new shows that are promising!

The highlights are the new season of Bakuman and the return of Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi!

Bakuman season 2:

Premiere Date: October 1

Our protagonists are on the verge of publication and new challenges arise!

The Pros: the great story, animation and pacing that follows the manga arc.

The Cons: lack of promotion by NHK

Guilty Crown

It will premiere on the Nnoitamina block, the story is set in 2039 and revolves around Shū, a boy who has acquired an ability called the "power of kings" that allows him to draw out weapons from another person. He joins a resistance group named "Undertaker" which aims to restore Japan's independence from an international organization known as the GHQ.

The Pros: from the trailers, the animation looks great, the premise is ok.

The Cons: if it drags out too much, it could have the same fate as Deadman Wonderland.

Premiere date: October 13

Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi season 2

The Pros: deliciously unique series with great relationship plots, the guilty pleasure of fujoshis everywhere!! Bishonen-ai!

The Cons: huh??

Premiere date: October 7

Working!!

Based on the four-koma manga, it concerns the activities of the unusual employees at the Wagnaria family restaurant, the fun will ensue!

The Pros: yes, more comedy! It seems to be the new trend.

The Cons: a good comedy series rarely fails, though there's always the possibility it will.

Premiere date: October 1

Un-go!

There is quite the mystery around this one, it will also premiere on Nnoitamina slot. Its production values are already high with their opening theme done by School Food Punishment, 'How to go', while the ending theme is "Fantasy" by LAMA.

The Pros: did I mention that this is done by the Full Metal Alchemist original staff??

The Cons: there's not much info, this could be the underdog horse which we all know what happens when it wins. The series is based on a light novel set on the Meiji era with a detective theme.

Premiere date: October 13

Ben-to

Also based on a light novel, the story revolves around a poor high school student named Yo Sato. Sato goes one day to the supermarket and finds a bento (lunch box) for sale at half price.

The Pros: looks really cute from the trailers. I hope the story's quality exceeds it.

The Cons: people that hate moe.

Premiere date: October (TBA)

Yuri Seijin Naoko san

The other guilty pleasure of the season for yuri lovers.

The Pros: it could have the same success as Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi, if the plot doesn't revolve much around yuri, but actually stories.

The Cons: precisely because of the theme, it could not last long. It's a gamble.

Premiere date: November 30

Phi Brain- Kami no Puzzle

The adventure series is about two high-schoolers that challenge dangerous “philosopher’s puzzles”.

The Pros: the promotion has been around for a year now. The artwork and animation looks pretty good for the trailers.

The Cons: will it go the same way as Kamisama no Memochou?

Premiere: October (TBA)

Bleach

The Pros: the great fan expectation over when the new arc post-Aizen will be animated. The last Kageroza arc, though a filler, was well animated with good fights at the end.

The Cons: the fillers!! It seems they will have us with one year of fillers!

Naruto Shippuden

The Pros: this show has been through such up and dows that it's part of their charm. Really, it's a classic show!

The Cons: More fillerology until they finally decide to catch up!

One Piece

The Pros: over 500 episodes make this anime among the legendary. The most read manga in the world will always keep this show alive.

The Cons: well, the usual. Fillers and tons of haters.

Beelzebub:

The Pros: this show has really grown strong, it's already going the path of the classic. The characters and situations in these last episodes have been nothing short of epic histerical. The animation quality has improved to a standard.

The Cons: really? There are no cons?

Gintama

The Pros: After a long break, this show returned on January stronger than ever. The great advantage that both this show and Beelzebub have is that they can have their own filler episode without straying from the manga since it's comedy.

The Cons: frankly, nothing

SKET Dance

The Pros: this series is going strong to the point that it's on crossovers with Gintama and now Bakuman.

The Cons: there isn't any except if they stick to lame episodes for too long, which I don't it would happen.

Nurarihyon no Mago: Sennen Makyo

The Pros: I can say that this show has quietly become the strongest show of the season without making much of a fuss. The outstanding quality of the story and the animation has endured greatly.

The Cons: I kinda wish that this series would be a continuous one instead of per season, but that would decrease the quality, wouldn't it? Who really wants Nuramago fillers? Yuck.

¬ ¬ *stares at Blue Exorcist filler arc that ends the season in a low note. ___

A live-action television adaptation of Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma ½ martial arts comedy manga will air this December as a two-hour special on Japan's NTV network. Yui Aragaki (Digimon: Data Squad, Koizora) will play Akane Tendō, and Kento Kaku (Paradise Kiss, Gokusen) and Natsuna (Gantz) will play the dual male/female sides of the title character Ranma Saotome.

Creator Hiroyuki Takei of Ultimo fame returns to his renowned manga Shaman King with a 44-page short story, a 'zero story' around the protagonist Yo Asakura. This story is set to come out in November 10 in Jump X (Kai) magazine by Shueisha.

The "zero story" will be the first in a series on short manga stories launching in the magazine.

Considering how Crunchyroll started O_O, this news was surprising and ironic to say the least:

Crunchyroll and TV Tokyo have issued a lawsuit against 13 YouTube uploaders for allegedly illegal distribution of anime episodes, according to a copyright infringement complaint filed on May 11 and served between July and September. Crunchyroll and TV Tokyo are seeking reparation for "great and irreparable injury that cannot fully be compensated or measured in money" because of the defendants' allegedly unauthorized copying, uploading, and distributing via YouTube of multiple Naruto, Naruto Shippūden, and Bleach episodes.

Based on their YouTube subscriber information, the defendants reside in the United States, Japan, Canada, Denmark, and Hungary. Crunchyroll maintains its main offices in California (as does YouTube), so the suit was filed as a U.S. copyright violation in the Northern District Court of California. For the purposes of the lawsuit, TV Tokyo is giving Crunchyroll legal permission to act on its behalf in order to "permanently remove the illegal uploads of infringing parties from file-sharing services and to obtain legal relief against infringers."

Crunchyroll also issued a statement in which they seem to back down, given that they don't support or endorse legal actions against anime fans and viewers. For them, "they have identified a few specific accounts on YouTube which were responsible for over 200 million unauthorized streams of our licensed content. These accounts were owned by repeat uploaders who continued to illegally distribute licensed shows despite receiving multiple DMCA takedown notices. In compliance with YouTube's TOS, filing a formal legal complaint was a necessary step in order to keep these illegal streams off of YouTube."

However, is Youtube the place to watch streamed anime episodes anymore?

I know this is an old piece of news, but that doesn't make it less amusing and original.

Rui Tamachi launched the magazine serialization of the Gokicha (Cockroach Girls) four-panel comedy manga in the September issue of Houbunsha's Manga Time Kirara Carat magazine on Thursday.

The title character Gokicha is an anthropomorphized cockroach (gokiburi in Japanese) who came to the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido from Tokyo's Kanto area to look for a human friend. Tamachi originally created the manga under the dōjin (self-published) circle name Rui-Tomo at the Comic Market 77 event in December of 2009.

Plans for a mobile anime were revealed in January. Nerd-Goods.com already sells a t-shirt based on the character. Aoshima is releasing plastic models of Gokicha and fellow cockroach girl Chaba this month.

Since I wasn't completely satisfied with the first shoot I had in my Kiris cosplay, I dragged mustacheranger out for a quick shoot.Didn't get much out of this one either /I really need my Raenef, haha.But I still got some solo shots, which I think are pretty neat, so just because I can, I'm sharing them here.

I've edited to look more cartoon-esque, just for the blog. Enjoy.*As always, click to see larger version